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Je gooit er met de pet naar

you don’t make an effort, you don’t really try [Dutch phrase of the week]

"Ergens met de pet naar gooien" is "to make a half-hearted attempt" to finish a job or task because you don’t feel like doing it. When someone’s not committed to something, and therefore only finishes half of the job or does a very poor job, you can say: "Hij/zij gooit er met de pet naar", which literally translated to : "He/she is throwing the hat at it". Phrases with a similar meaning as "ergens met de pet naar gooien" are "niet je best doen" ("not try your best") or "ergens lak aan hebben" ("not care about something").

6 thoughts on “Je gooit er met de pet naar”

Does anyone know where this expression came from?
It’s very similar to the expression “throw the towel in”, which I’ve been told comes from boxing. I was thinking they’d come from the same place, but there’s not a alot of hat wearing in boxing. :S

@Ben,
“Throw in the towel” normally means to give up when you know you’re beaten, or concede defeat. It doesn’t mean you didn’t try hard to win.
Idiomatic English for “met de pet naar gooien” might be “mailing it in”. When a sports team isn’t really working hard, we say they’re “just mailing it in”, as if they didn’t show up in person. It could also be used in other contexts than sports.

@Matt,
Matt, I assume that you’re American, because I have never heard the expression “mailing it in” before. I’m British and would have absolutely no idea what that would mean if someone said that to me!
@Ben,
The Dutch also ‘throw the towel in’ = ‘de handdoek in de ring gooien’ to concede defeat. Not to be confused with the English ‘to throw your hat into the ring’ which means to let yourself be entered as a contender in a race or election, etc. Idioms are confusing, eh?